Free-peeling submerged arc welding composition



Dec. 11, 1962 A. E. sHRUBsALL ETAL 3,068,128

FREEPEELING SUBMERGED ARC WELDING COMPOSITION Filed Jan. 25, 1961 SHARDS STANDARD COMPOSITION DEFECTS IN DEPOSIT INVENTIVE COMPOSITION CLEAN DEPOSIT cLEAn nEPoslT l INVENTIVE COMPOSITION g STANDARD CONPDSI TI 0N DEFECTS IN DEPOSIT m WQ INVENToRs 'l ARTHUR E. SHRUBSALL K. WOODROW RIMER A T TORNE Y United States PatentOlice 3,668,128 Patented Dec. l1, 1962 3,068,128 FREE-PERLING SUBMERGED ARC WELDNG COMPSTN Arthur E. Shruhsall, Niagara Falls, NX., and Kenneth W.

Rimer, Newark, NJ., assignors to Union Carbide Corporation, a corporation of New York Filed ian. 23, 1961, Ser. No. 34AM 3 Claims. (Cl. 14S- 26) Range, Preferred percent composition,

percent The composition also may include from a trace to percent Cr2O3 when desired to maintain a higher than normally available chromium level in the weld metal.

'Ihe invention also provides a process of submergedarc welding wherein a consumable electrode is fed toward metal-work to be Welded, striking the arc end of the electrode beneath a blanket of granular composition of the type defined above, thereafter leaving a readily removable or free-peeling fused slag on the surface of the welded work.

Prior to the present invention, satisfactory welds have been made of stainless steel with a welding composition of the type disclosed in Patent No. 2,228,639. Unfortunately, such welding composition exhibited one principal shortcoming, namely, that part which was fused during the welding operation, hereinafter called slag, did not remove cleanly from the base metal. As a result, the joint required special cleaning prior tothe next Welddeposit, because any residual slag remaining on the Weld tended to act as an insulator and deflected the arc, causing erratic arc action. in addition, such residual slag resisted fusion between the deposit being laid down and that already fused to the base metal, because of its inherent refractory character. Also, some slags are difficult to remove during the cleaning operation, since they become entrapped as a result of normal undercutting associated with the welding process. In the event that such entrapped slag became embedded and was not removed prior to a subsequent welding pass, the resultant welds exhibited poor mechanical properties and such defects at critical areas of the surfaces to be welded, resulted in a weakened joint and complete failure under any undue tensile force.

Slags which remain as shards on the surface of the weld are also difficult to remove. Such shards adhere very tenaciously, and upon cooling of the Weld, have a tendency to pop-off, being thereby projected at high velocity. Naturally, great danger exists to people Within the immediate vicinity.

Welding economics similarly have been adversely affected by such adherent slags. It is apparent that in a multipass operation much time and effort can be expended `for properly cleaning each pass and industry would be receptive to a welding composition that would eliminate such additional expense.

Attempts in the past to overcome these and other dificulties have not met with much success. A number of bonded type compositions which have at times exhibited good slag removal (free-peeling) characteristics, exhibit a series of shortcomings such as non-homogeneity and hygroscopicity which make it difhcult to obtain consistent weld performance.

The main object of this invention is to provide a freepeeling submerged-arc welding composition capable of providing high quality welds with less operator eifort on stainless steel and nickel-base alloys; which composition also is suitable for surfacing steel base metals with stainless steel alloys; produces a weld completely free from any deleterious residual material such as shards; and is characterized by having enough wetting action during the welding operation so as to eliminate undesirable undercutting together with slag entrapment.

Such objects are accomplished by a novel submergedmelt Welding composition that is composed by Weight of l5 to 25 percent Na2SiF6, 30 to 45 percent SiOz, 8 to 18 percent A1203, 25 to 35 percent MgO, and 0 to 6 percent Na2C03. The source of uorine preferably is selected from the class of fiuorides consisting of aluminum liuoride, sodium silico fluoride, magnesium silico fluoride and potassium Silico liuoride. More specifically, the invention provides an improved welding composition containing 21.9 percent NazSiFs, 31.6 percent SiO2, 15.3 percent A1203, 26.0 percent MgO and 5.2 percent Na2CO3.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view (photograph) of a seam Weld made according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a similar view of a seam Weld made according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view (photograph) of strip-electrode surfacing welds made according to the prior art; and

FIG. 4 is a similar view of strip-electrode surfacing Welds made according to the invention.

The welds shown in FlGS. l and 2 were made by the work-in-circuit submerged-melt welding process in which the arc was energized under a blanket of granular flux between the end of a metal electrode of wire and the work being welded. The improved result obtained by use of the inventive composition over that of the prior art is evident.

In our investigations in the area of obtaining an improved welding composition for stainless steel welding work was carried on initially with synthetic phlogopite mica, (KMggAlSiOgOmFz) a uorine analogue of natural phlogopite (KMg3AlSi3O8) (OI-D2. Welds made with such material upon mild steel using the submerged-arc welding process resulted in a slag which was noticeably free-peeling from the Weld. Subsequent testing of the same material upon 1/2 in. 18-8 stainless steel plates produced good arc stability and a weld deposit of uniform contour. Unexpectantly, very little fuming took place despite the high fluorine content (13 percent) of the material.

A series of heats were made to establish the optimum range of the constituents. Table 1 groups the data according to composition of the fluorine component present in the welding composition. The raw constituents were placed into an arc furnace and melted. Then the resultant molten mass in each instance was cast into a chill plate and thereafter cooled, crushed, and sized to l2 mesh X D. The resultant product can be characterized as being a gray, crystalline, stony material with a micaceous fracture. In sizing the product, care had to be exercised so that not too many fines were produced due to the soft nature of the material.

Weld tests performed on the synthamica composition `stances despite the presence of uorine.

accedas indicated that fluorine-base compounds form the necessary major components in a free-peeling type of welding composition. With previous Welding compositions of the type as disclosed in Patents 2,200,737, and 2,228,- 639, it has been determined that silica is the principal cause of the tightly adhering shards of slag to the weld surface. During the welding reaction such silica combines with chromium in the plate or electrode metal to form chromium silicate of a tenacious character. The composition as described herein has equal or higher silica contents, nevertheless, with a iiuorine-based component as a major constituent, a welding composition with a free-peeling slag product is obtained. data, it is apparent that with a percent tluorine bearing compound, a free-peeling slag was not produced. However, with percent or greater content of such a compound, the free-peeling characteristic was attained.

Further investigation by us indicated that the fluorine compounds were not solely responsible for the freepeeling action of the slag. A series of Welds revealed that the slag adhered to the weld surface in certain in- However, none of these compositions contained any predetermined amounts of alumina. Additions of alumina tend to lower the melting point or solidifcation temperature of the `welding composition. Hence, a greater than normally available span in temperature between the solidication temperature of the weld metal and the slag is obtained. This difference, together with a vitreous character of welding composition, contributes to the elimination of the adhering shards. The temperature difference is necessary to provide for satisfactory welding performance, i.e., the slag will not tend to adhere to the weld metal because of the difference in contraction rates.

In attempting to determine a desired constituent range, a number of fluoride bearing compounds were considered. Potassium silicoiiuoride was initially evaluated with other `tluorides substituted in whole or part for it. Those considered were sodium aluminum iluoride (Na3AlF6), sodium silicouoride (Na2SiF6) and magnesium silicouoride (MgSiF). Unfortunately, the welding compositions containing the magnesium silicofluoride were not successful and failure is believed to be due to the absence of alumina rather than the diiferent form of uoride. Furtherevaluation indicated that welding cornpositions containing potassium silicouoride are somewhat sensitive to particle size, the preferred range being 35 mesh X D. Those welding compositions containing sodium type fluorides, however, appeared to be indifferent to sizing, operating equally as Well with 12 mesh X D or 35 mesh X D.

Additions of manganese or chromium oxides did not affect the welding action or the free-peeling characteristics of the composition. As an example, the addition of 4 percent chromium oxide (Cr2O3) increased the amount From available of chromium recovery in the Weld metal (Table IV) and yet provided a free-peeling slag. A comparison of welding results in Table II with those in Table III indicates that the slag-to-wire ratio of the inventive composition is less than that for the competitive ones and aids in improving weld economics.

Bead size and shape appeared to be dependent upon the type of uorine compound used; the sodium bearing compounds yielded somewhat Wider and more uniform deposits than that of the potassium bearing components. Where potassium silicofiuoride and sodium aluminum fluoride were converted to sodium silicolluoride, additional amounts of sodium in the form of sodium carbonate were added to maintain the sodium level.

UneXpectantly, the high fluorine content of the composition did not cause objectionable fuming during the welding operation. This is believed to be caused by the fact that the uorine is tied up in the welding composition as a complex fluorosilicate.

To further prove the value of the inventive welding composition, a at strip electrode was used (as disclosed in Newman et al., Pat. No. 2,848,593, for example) in place of a conventional round electrode. Beads deposited with such strip electrode were from 1 in. to 11/2 in. in Width and were very smooth. A pad weld of several overlapping beads on mild steel plate showed a dilution of only 13 percent.

From various Welds made, the welding composition provided itself adaptable to strip electrode welding, producing exceptionally good results in the case of surfacing. Dilution was found to be far less with this technique than with the round electrode. In addition, a wider surface area was able to be covered in a single pass.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate such surfacing applications comparing the performance of the inventive welding composition with a prior composition. Note the shard free and clean weld-deposits of the inventive composition.

TABLE I Welding Composition TABLE II Weld Tests Welding composition number Welding conditions Plate thickness, inch 1 2 v5 1 1/2 12 M Type (stainless steel) 18-8 18-8 18-8 18-8 18-8 18-8 18-8 18-8 18-8 Electrode diameter, inch.. its Ms 3/i 3s "5^ 9 3 e ia Type (stainless steel) 18-8 188 18-8 18-8 18-8 188 18-8 18-8 18-8 Amperes- 600 600 600 525 640 650 560 640 G Vol 42 41. 5 40 45 43 37 45 43 37 IPM. 18 18 18 1 1 18 1 18 18 Power DORP DORP DORP DORP DORP DORP DORP DORP DORP Ratio, slag/W 0. 0. 78 0. 90 0. 9 1.10 0.8 1. 0. Remarks on slag.-- (l) (1) (2) (l) (3) (l) (l) (l) l Free peeling. 2 Some slag adherence. 3 Very adherent slag.

TABLE III Comparative Weld Tests (Surface Beads) Plate Electrode Commercial Ratio,

product Amps. Volts IPM Power slag/wire Remarks Thickness Type 1 Diam. Type 1 in. in.

l 18-8 /e 18-8 640 39 18 DCRP 1.30 Slag adherence to edges and surface.

it 18-8 54e 18-8 640 39 18 DORP 0.90 Scum on weld surface very diicult to remove.

l 18-8 e 18-8 600 40 18 DCRPM. 1.20 Scum on weld surface not removable.

l Stainless steel.

TABLE IV Part A WELD TESTS FOR DETERMINATION OF WELD METALS PROPERTIES [18-8 Stainless Steel plate, 9e" thick; 18-8 Stainless Steel rod, le diameter; Weld single V butt] Welding conditions Weld metal analysis Welding Ratio comp. slag/wire Amps. Volts IPM Power Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent C Mn Ni Cr 4 850 30 18 AC 0.37 0.082 0.58 1. 62 v 11. 13 19. 47 6 850 33 18 AC 0. 32 0.092 0. 62 1. 56 11. 50 19.22

Part B WELD TESTS FOR DETERMINATION OF WELD METALS PROPERTIES [18-8 Stainless Steel plate, thick; 18-8 Stainless Steel rod, )4" diameter; weld single V butt] Mechanical properties Tensile Test Charpy impact test, i't.1bs. Welding comp.

Yield Ult. Elongation, Reduction strength, strength, percent in of area, +70 C. -80 C, -196 O.

p.s.i. p.s.i. 2 in. percent 2. A fused granular submerged-melt welding composition which is composed of 21.9% NagSiF, 31.6% Si02, ,15.3% A1203, 26.0% MgO and 5.2% NagCOa.

31. A fused granular submerged-melt welding composition for Welding stainless steel as well as nickel base alloys with little eiort to produce high quality welds that are free of deleterious residual material such as Shards, and a free-peeling slag, which composition is composed by weight of the following ingredients: 30-45% SiOz, 818% A1203, 25-35% MgO, and 15-25% uoride compound selected from the class consisting of aluminum fluoride, sodium Silico uoride, magnesium Silico i,luo.- ride and potassium silico fluoride.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS #94,023 Hopkins Nov. .9, 1954 

3. A FUSED GRANULAR SUBMERGED-MELT WELDING COMPOSITION FOR WELDING STAINLESS STEEL AS WELL AS NICKEL BASE ALLOYS WITH LITTLE EFFORT TO PRODUCE HIGH QUALITY WELDS THAT ARE FREE OF DELETERIOUS RESIDUAL MATERIAL SUCH AS SHARDS, AND A FREE-PEELING SLAG, WHICH COMPOSITION IS COMPOSED BY WEIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS: 30-45% SI02, 8-18% A12203, 25-35% MGO, AND 15-25% FLUORIDE COMPOUND SELECTED FROM THE CLASS CONSISTTING OF ALUMINUM FLUORIDE, SODIUM SILICON FLUORIDE, MAGNESIUM SILICO FLUORIDE AND POTASSIUM SILICO FLUORIDE. 